A couple of weeks ago my ’step’-Grandfather Ernie passed away.  Being a WWII veteran there was a military service followed by a family service at the funeral home in Ottawa.  That gave me an opportunity to visit with some Uncles, Aunts and cousins that I have not seen for 15-20 years.

It was a very interesting couple of days.  We stayed at my Uncle Roger’s place.  He has quite a few interests in common with myself of which cooking and computers are at the top. 

We won’t delve into the computer interests as that is way to boring.  But the cooking….

For the stay, Roger bought a 20lb shoulder of pork (for < $20 !!) and cooked it for over 24 hrs on his BBQ.  It was magnifique and there are 2 reasons for this:

1)  The Big Green Egg.  The world’s greatest smoker and grill (for the price you pay).  Now you’re cooking with flavour!

2)  Pre-mixed rubs from www.chefpaul.com The advantage is that they are well balanced and flavourful.  The disadvantage is that you’re subject to the amount of sodium put into them.

Potato Salad:  the secret is mustard seed soaked in rice vineger and the mixture added to the salad.  Use real mayonnaise and coarse seed Dijon mustard.

It was great to see some faces from so long ago.  Everyone looks pretty much the same as when I last met them and for some reason that felt reassuring.  Probably because I felt young again.

 It was fun taking the brother Luc out to the Elephant & Castle at the Rideau Centre on Friday afternoon.  We are able to check out some old stomping grounds.  I can’t believe how much I miss living there when I’m re-visiting.  But there’s no way I would ever want to be more than a visitor again.  Too expensive too overpopulated and too cold in the winter.

Interesting:  I flew up there for the 1st time.  1st time in the new T1 in Toronto:  very nice.  1st time in the Ottawa airport:  very small but easy to rent a car.  For about 150 it beats the extra 6 hrs I would have spent in transit by car not to mention that awful pass through Toronto on the 401. 

 Some closing notes:  It looks like my brother Luc’s hockey pool strategy may fall short this year.  He overloaded his picks on what he thought the 2 final teams in the Cup would be this year.  One of those teams are out and the other one has yet to lock in.  Good luck.

On another good luck note:  good luck to my uncle’s home team Sens as they have made it to the finals for the 1st time in over 80 years.  Let’s hope they pull it out and bring the Cup back to Canada and to the capital city.  Leafs and Habs fans should prepare to eat crow.